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Home > Yojimbo (movie)


Yojimbo 用心棒 is a 1961 film by Akira Kurosawa, in which a ronin, portrayed by Toshiro Mifune, arrives at a small town with competing crime lords making their money from gambling, and convinces each crime lord to hire him as protection from the other. By careful political manouevring and the use of his sword, he brings peace by encouraging both sides to wipe each other out.

The film's look and themes were inspired by John Ford's western film conventions including the canonical taciturn loner and the helpless townsfolk needing a protector. Its cinematography mimics conventional shots in western films including that of the lone hero in a wideshot, facing an enemy or enemies from a distance when the wind kicks up dust between the two.

Yojimbo was later remade as A Fistful of Dollars, a spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, and remade, yet again, in a 20th century "gangster" genre, as Last Man Standing , starring Bruce Willis.

Trivia

The Japanese word yojimbo can be translated into English as bodyguard, and in the movie The Bodyguard Kevin Costner takes Whitney Houston to see Yojimbo.

It is frequently asserted in Internet newsgroups and on websites that the plot is inspired by the book Red HarvestRed Harvest ( 1929) is a Dashiell Hammett story of a nameless detective, The Continental Op, whose client is killed before they met. For reasons that the reader can only guess, he takes the endeavor of cleaning the gang-filled city of Poisonville. It is f by Dashiell HammettSamuel Dashiell Hammett ( May 27, 1894 January 10, 1961) was an American author of " hard-boiled" detective novels and short stories. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade The Maltese Falcon , Nick and Nora Charles The Thin Man , and the. Kurosawa never acknowledged such an influence.


Japanese films 1961 films

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